6 min read
Wow, this is late. I know I’m not beholden to any regular readers or a schedule besides a self-imposed one. Still, that self-imposed schedule is important to me. I like to write, and when I don’t get to write I feel bad. Similarly, I like to play games, but haven’t had much of a chance to of late. Things have been crazy for me. So this is a bit shorter than I’d like it to be, I wanted to write about my time with Arco (which is amazing by the way) and I had bought a bunch of games from itch.io to play too but those will just have to wait. I have a feeling Arco will get its own dedicated review anyway, such a good fucking game. Without further ado, let the roundup commenceth.
Break the Loop
Break the Loop is a time-looping rougelite. There’s not a whole lot else to say about it. The gameplay is very reminiscent of Darkest Dungeon but with one big twist. It’s cute as fuck. I’m not sure quite how to describe the art style other than minimalist pop art. Every character looks unique and the animations are super slick and smooth.
The game is difficult, I had some trouble with it. You’re supposed to fail over and over again to get stronger which is a common theme in roguelites but I felt Break the Loop leans a little too heavily into randomisation. One random event can basically kill an entire run. I’m not a massive fan of roguelikes/roguelites in general though, let it be said. The ones I do like tend to offer a lot more player agency, and let me build broken characters like in Path of Achra which I will be discussing shortly.
I still think there’s plenty to like about Break the Loop. The dialogue is witty, the art and animations are so gorgeous and the challenge is there for those who crave it.
Path of Achra
This game is a bit older than the others on this list, but I played it a lot before I launched this website so I wanted to write about some other stuff first! Path of Achra is a lo-fi, MSDOS era inspired roguelike which feels like someone watched Conan the Barbarian one dozen too many times. The game bills itself as a “broken build sandbox” which couldn’t be more accurate.
Right away the game evokes late nights staring at ASCII art of your “wizard” in NetHack. The art in Path of Achra is sprite based, so it’s a lot more visually stimulating that the roguelikes of yore, and it’s a lot easier to tell what’s going on. Gameplay wise, each room is set up more like an arena than a small dungeon, so I hesitate to call Path of Achra a dungeon crawler. It also features an overworld map with branching paths, some more dangerous (but ultimately more rewarding) than others. I loved this. I loved seeing this lo-fi representation of a vast and uncaring desert littered with caves and ruins, and I especially loved walking into one of these areas and using a broken build to mop the floor with every living thing in sight.
The game gives you so much creativity to build synergies between different classes, abilities, skills, spells and races. In some ways its very similar to Vampire Survivors which also lets you create fundamentally overpowered synergies between its items. You can level up your stats as you kill enemies, clear rooms and discover things. You can upgrade your abilities and spells, and even find loot to equip too. You’d think that all of this might make the game too easy, and it can be. Some encounters were a joke, but there are others that will make you eat those words.
Chocolate
Chocolate is… an experience, for sure. You play as a soldier going to Argentine Antarctica to retrieve some runes. It’s a hostile environment where the cold can kill you and the chocolate is dangerous. The game is atmospheric, simple to play and tense too. I think my biggest problem with it is just how obtuse it is. I want to love the game, and I don’t mind the game being difficult but it can be a bit tedious. The developer themselves describes it as Feel the horror of being lost. and I certainly did feel lost. The only problem is I can only be interested in wandering around a level looking for essentially needles in a haystack for so long. At one point I almost completed the game but the map became so enshrouded in fog and darkness I could barely see in front of me, and I died from exposure to the cold.
You have a compass but it’s entirely useless as far as I can tell. I think if there were more distinctive landmarks it would be more engaging, since I’d be able to build a mental map. There are a few landmarks but not enough given the size of the level. Everything else I liked, the art style is retro and minimalist, the audio especially does a lot of heavy lifting in creating tension and unease. It’s very similar to Haneko’s Lost Homework from the last Biweekly Roundup, in that is asks you to explore a creepy and surreal environment looking for collectibles before escaping. Chocolate can be had for just $1 over on Itch.io and the developer also has a collection of their games releasing on Steam soon too called “Lost Diskettes Volume 1” which I will link down below.
And find Lost Diskettes Volume 1 here!
If any of those games sound even a bit interesting consider trying them out for yourself. Supporting indie developers means they can make more cool stuff! If you like this roundup, thanks! It was a struggle to get it out, but I’m really happy I did. Hopefully the next one will follow-up a bit quicklier. Thanks for reading!